There was a question on LinkedIn today about the MVNO model making a comeback. It seems that Sprint buying Virgin Mobile has sparked a slow news day.
Let's not forget that SK Telecom dropped almost $300M on the Earthlink MVNO formerly known as Helio, which was given to Virgin Mobile last year. SKT was looking for a foot hold in the US market (just like every other international player). If SKT decided to sell its one stake, what chance does the MVNO model have?
As more minutes move to the cellular networks from the wireline network, how does that scale or make financial sense for a virtual operator? (Many analysts note that it hardly makes financial sense for the network operators).
I'm thinking that Sprint bought it to prop up some pre-paid revenue (short term). Or that Sprint needs to just embrace pre-paid altogether in which case they need to go buy some more players including Yak.
Let's not forget that SK Telecom dropped almost $300M on the Earthlink MVNO formerly known as Helio, which was given to Virgin Mobile last year. SKT was looking for a foot hold in the US market (just like every other international player). If SKT decided to sell its one stake, what chance does the MVNO model have?
As more minutes move to the cellular networks from the wireline network, how does that scale or make financial sense for a virtual operator? (Many analysts note that it hardly makes financial sense for the network operators).
I'm thinking that Sprint bought it to prop up some pre-paid revenue (short term). Or that Sprint needs to just embrace pre-paid altogether in which case they need to go buy some more players including Yak.
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